Beckwith v. Corn Belt Land & Loan Co.
Beckwith v. Corn Belt Land & Loan Co.
Opinion of the Court
— It appears that Elizabeth Mathews owned a residence at 1533 Vine Street in Des Moines and defendant, a quarter section of land in Lincoln County, Nebraska. They exchanged, the company conveying to her the land and paying to her $300.00 and she deeding to defendant the house and lot and executing to it a promissory note for $1,500.00 and securing payment thereof by giving a mortgage back on the land. Thereafter, Mrs. Mathews, who had never seen the land, employed plaintiffs to institute suit against defendant for damages she claimed to have suffered in said exchange and in pursuance of such employment they filed a petition alleging that defendant had fraudulently deceived her and thereby induced her to make such exchange to her damage in the sum of $- and caused original notice to be served on defendant. Sometime later, notice that plaintiffs claimed
Had defendant paid Mrs. Mathews - money instead of property, in settlement, the right of plaintiffs to establish their lien could not be questioned. Crosby & Fordyce v. Hatch, 155 Iowa 312. Cheshire v. Des Moines City Ry. Co., 153 Iowa 88; Smith v. Ry., 56 Iowa 720.
The contention of counsel for appellant is that as it conveyed property to her, such lien will not.be established. We are not inclined to that view. Had the cause been prosecuted to judgment, recovery, if any, must have been in money and plaintiffs would have been entitled to a lien thereon for the value of their services. Such a prosecution of the action was obviated by the settlement or compromise, and this was because of the injury alleged and in a sense in satisfaction of damages, if any, which may have flowed therefrom. Cheshire v. Des Moines City Ry., supra.
The compromise was of the claim of money due regardless of how settled and it was on money due the lien attached. Instead of paying the money alleged to be due, defendant conveyed property of value as stated and we are of opinion that the lien may not be defeated by substituting property in place of money in satisfaction of such a claim. The design of the statute giving an attorney a lien on, money due his client from the adverse party.is to- protect him in the collection, out of the proceeds of the litigation, of the value of services rendered ; and for this reason, it may not be defeated by a secret compromise of the parties to the suit and may be éstablished as against anything of value derived thereby on a claim for money due and traceable as a consequence of such- services. The payment of money or property in settlement is in satisfaction of the claim for money due and to which the lien
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.